New Tech High School Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
Preparing Students for the 21st Century
Next spring, Ypsilanti’s New Tech High School will celebrate its first graduating class of students. Opened in 2010 as part of the Washtenaw Intermediate School District’s (WISD) efforts to boost high school graduation rates and better prepare students for college, New Tech offers an innovative option for high school students in Washtenaw County.
Project-based learning and technology are at the heart of the School’s instructional approach. Armed with a laptop and online tools, students collaborate and apply the skills and concepts they learn to solve real-world issues and problems. A recent partnership between New Tech and the University of Michigan’s College of Engineering gave students the chance to study effects of algal blooms on the Great Lakes and investigate possible engineering solutions.
A $300,000 grant to WISD from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation funded the purchase of the New Tech curriculum license and access to a national online network where teachers can share best practices, project ideas and curriculum innovations. A teacher at New Tech notes: "The emphasis on teachers and students working together has provided the ground work for a productive learning community. And project based learning provides real world connections for students, giving them opportunities to take their learning out to the community."
One of the many ways the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation
supports all that is good in our community.
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